Dec 2023, second half

Matthew had an air cadet event at the end of the year. It required him to dress up. That's worth taking a picture of! He even has a bow tie on!  

 

Christmas break is a wonderful time of year! We really like taking it easy!

We had our usual gift giving tradition of Sinterklaas. It's a lot of work, since we all have to make or find something for someone. We also make clues for each gift. It's not easy to come up with new clues every year! The gifts usually start appearing a few days before we will open them, so we have time to solve all the puzzles.

Candy canes are part of the tradition as well, to enjoy while waiting for your turn.

Jennifer made me a fancy boot rack, to go by the sliding door in our kitchen. She didn't stain it yet, so I could choose what color I wanted. I'm so spoiled! It sure is nice to get a custom shelf, made with love! Philip helped out with this project

 

 Matthew got a bunch of electron goodies.

Since our last trip to Smithers my kids have been begging for a toaster oven because it was so amazing...so now we have one too. It does get a lot of use!

Our skating rink had some issues...the big late December thaw didn't help...but we managed to prop it up so that it could hold water again. Here is hoping that the weather will get cold enough so we can use it after all the work Daniel put into making it!

 

Another tradition we have now is hosting a Christmas party. The kids all help tidy up the house and set up various rooms in the house for different games or activities. It's always so nice being tidy that they go and enjoy it ahead of time. ;)

We were expecting a bigger turnout than the previous year, with lots of kids, so we set up ping pong, fuse ball AND air hockey in the "apartment" downstairs. Maybe the noisy kids will stay down there!

And the big day arrives, and all the guests show up! The kitchen fills up with a lot of people...the big draw being all the food that everyone brings to share.

Everyone spills out in to the various rooms in the house, and the games that are set up get some attention.

We share our tradition of opening the meal with Bible reading and prayer.

Lots of hungry people waiting to eat! Considering how many people show up, the dinner is easy to host, since it is buffet style. Most families bring food to share, and a lot of the families also help clean up before they leave. And since our house is rarely that tidy, we can enjoy a super tidy house after the Christmas party...until it becomes "normal" again.

On Christmas morning in our church, the children under age 12 sing a few songs. This year Jennifer and Melanie accompanied them on flute and piano. 

We were planning on spending Christmas dinner with Steve and family, but they were really sick. And then I found out that my friend Litchi's furnace was broken, so her family was going to have a cold Christmas. They came over for Christmas dinner, and since Chinese stores are open on Christmas day, they could also pick up food on the way, and we were treated with Chinese Hot Pot for our Christmas dinner!

It's a slow process to have hot pot, since you cook the food in stages. It's worth waiting for...and then you just keep eating and eating! It was really delicious! They made one side spicy (medium spicy, not really spicy) and the other side mild. Traditionally it can be super spicy!

For New Years Eve Philip alwasy makes us oiliebollen.

He does all the work while we sit around and eat and read books.

I ate my oliebollen with chopsticks, just to change things up a bit. It tasted even better this way.

Yum.

After our evening worship service we had a New Years Party at my friend Sejin's house. We stayed until all the guests were gone...and so did my friend Priscilla. It was a great way to start 2024!

It can be really funny when we reflect on our different backgrounds and cultures, and how we respond to different things. It can really make for some funny stories, especially when shared with humour.

Hanging out. Evelyn struggles to stay up late with big noisy groups. Sometimes she needs to find me to recharge her energy.

The boys spent time time playing hockey downstairs. There is a really big room where the younger kids often roller blade and play hockey.

Jennifer having a good time!

We spent some time in prayer and singing songs (each in our own language...it is very interesting all singing at the same time, but with different words!) before we had the official count down into the new year.

Dec 2023, first half

December was also a quiet month. Lots of school and regular activities. Truth be told, it's really not that quiet...it's still very busy!

Daniel spent all of his extra hours working on the skating rink. He couldn't agree with his siblings on how to make it, so he ended up doing it all himself.

Evelyn would play nearby to keep him company.

More school.

Hi Mom, I'm working hard.

Matthew's latest writing project had to do with Coke. So we got to try out several kinds and gave him our opinions. We actually like the taste of the zero coke the best.

Such hard workers!

Evelyn's classic "hug?" request.

Progress on the rink looks slow, but it's definitely getting further along every week!

Daniel's project involved jelly beans. And way toooo much testing. I'm not sure any of us want to eat jelly beans for a while now.

Ooooh, what is it doing? Is it printing something? What's happening?

Jennifer has been attending a Life Skill's class at the school that Melanie has been volunteering at. They made tye-dye pajama pants and aprons. Jennifer has been enjoying the class...and lending a hand when it's something she is good at, like sewing.

Evelyn set up a tree so we could hang up our Christmas cards. Sorry, we are not sending one out this year, but we are enjoying the ones we've been receiving!

Nov 2023, Daniel is 14!

Daniel turned 14 at the end of November.

Time is sure going by fast!

We've never tried an escape room before. For Daniel's birthday Matthew Melanie and I joined Daniel at an escape room. It was a really fun experience, even if we didn't quite solve the last clue...we did get pretty far and worked together as a great team.

1. D. 4. Daniel 14, or 14 Daniel...read how you like. He's sure getting mature. Lol.

Hopefully this second hand gift will work properly and isn't too difficult to get to work. We pooled together resources and got something off of Kijiji. Daniel isn't particularly helpful at giving us ideas of what to give him. Seeing as his very cool cousin has a 3D printer, we thought we'd take a risk and see if he'd enjoy one.

We are thankful for another year with Daniel in the family. He does a great job helping host younger kids at our house (the boys, I mean) and entertaining younger boys at church. He is kind and honest. If sometimes he seems a little too argumentative...I try remember that he gets that from his dad's side of the family and I used to think it was kind of cute, all those technical and pointless controversial discussions.

Nov 2023

November was an uneventful month. Full of school and regular activities. Matthew had to sew on some new badges on his uniform.

We were thrilled to host some cousins for two nights. A first for us!! Jennifer recommended some favourite books.

Evelyn had way too much fun

And the youngest was pampered by us all because she is too cute.

I stepped away with Matthew to take part in the Remembrance Day parade. 

Well, actually, I observed, while he took part.

It was a cold day to be standing still for over half an hour! And then finally the long march back.

Daniel grew a lot. He wanted to show us how much he grew by showing the measuring tape while Matthew took a photo. I'm sure that clears things up for everyone.

We have our Korean friends (minus the dad) over on a weekly basis now. On this particular occasion we are babysitting for the evening while the parents went in for a meeting...to discuss the call to be a co-pastor at our church. He accepted the call so we are thrilled to have our friends stick around in Canada!!

Evelyn playing with the triplets.

Melanie keeping Bona busy.

On a warmer day, Matthew stepped outside to work on his math. The fresh air helped clear his head.

Evelyn still has enough free time to work on crafts.

Melanie fits a bit of schoolwork in during her week. She volunteers once a week at a school...which seems to enjoy more than her work. ;)

The girls working hard. :) After all, we do need to do some actual schoolwork after all those holidays and trips!

Matthew working hard.

I harvested the last of my garden in November. We had a pretty mild fall...and the carrots stayed protected from the frost, being underground. So we enjoyed fresh garden carrots, even in December! Yummy!

Oct 22, 2023 Crash

The Sunday after getting back from our trip, Matthew and Philip went ahead of us to church in the car, as per usual. The rest of us came later in the van...and not far from home we had a bad collision. We were going about 60km/hr when we beaned into another vehicle. As many have said before, it happened so fast! Melanie was at the wheel, and she responded in the best way possible, but it was just unavoidable at the speed we were (legally!) going.

All six of us were able to walk out of the vehicle safely, and so did the other guy. We did have to hunt around for our glasses. We were not injured seriously...we had some really sore muscles. We got muscle relaxant medications and had some x-rays done the next day to be safe...but other than some scratches and bruises we were all okay. So absolutely amazing. I am very thankful for the safety features built into vehicles nowadays! But more so, we are thankful for God's protecting hand over us! We traveled through much more dangerous places in PNG and were kept safe, and here close to home we are reminded again that we are still in His care.

Bye bye faithful blue van!

If you live in the GTA and need a tow, I would strongly recommend that you call your insurance company for a recommendation...or use CAA. Our van is still be held "ransom" by the towing company that showed up at the scene. They seem to think that they can be paid $100 a day for storing it (against our will). The first two days they gave me the runaround instead of letting me sign a release paper and tried pressure me into fighting my insurance company Fortunately the insurance company stepped in and is the one dealing with them now. They are taking the towing company to court. It's certainly a slow process..it's been over ten weeks already!

Today I finally got a minivan from the rental company...to say that they are hard to come by these days is a bit of an understatement! Occasionally we've needed to ask other people to pick up a few of us, since Nathan needed the car and we can't exactly fit 7 of us in a car or SUV.  That's over 10 weeks so far! It is annoying to have to delay being able to buy a van (and have one of our rentals overheat and die on us) but we put it in perspective. We are all ok...a bit of hassle and waiting is not much of a problem compared to what could have been. 

This accident reminded me most of all that God has given us all more time here on this earth to do His work. When he is ready he will take us home to heaven...but for now he wants us to keep busy here.

Oct 18, 2023 home again

We had yet another early start, this time we are headed home!! We had plenty of extra time at the airport after going through security. We enjoyed some breakfast and did some last minute shopping.

Goodbye Papua New Guinea!! I left a piece of my heart behind...the people in PNG are so easy to love, even having made such brief connections, it's so impactful.

The 18th was a very long day...since we traveled with the time zones this time...it dragged on and on. Our stop in Manila was shorter this time, so we didn't do any touring.

We will be home soon! So tired and so excited at the same time!

Counting down the hours until we arrive. We are feeling pretty out of it by the time we get home safely!!